First Lessons Violin

This review assumes you're using this book to teach yourself violin (i.e. you have no instructor). If you already know how to prepare your violin for play (tune it, rosin the bow, etc.) and read sheet music well you can get a lot out of this book. I'd give the book/CD 5 stars on the quality of the exercises but knock off a star each on lack of info on violin care/tuning/etc. and lack of instruction on reading sheet music.These are excellent first "exercises" but not first "lessons". Also, the ability to read standard sheet music well (5-line staff) is a must for this book (there's no real teaching of how to read it and no tablature at all): this book is almost entirely sheet music exercises.The book does not go into care or preparation of the violin at all - not even tuning it (with tricky pegs!) or how much rosin to use. I resorted to internet violin lesson sites - and there are several good ones if you search - to fill in the gaps.In the "look inside" feature, you'll find an "excerpt" of lesson 1 - it's the only page in the entire book with pictures. And what you see is almost ALL of lesson 1 except for a sheet music exercise.You can see that the author doesn't expect the student to have previous knowledge of how to hold the violin or the bow. Yet the author apparently expects the student to know whether to use the all of the bow or the edge or how to tell if the bow is poorly rosined. I'm left wondering what other important things are not discussed at all!If you don't want to get bogged down in reading theory, etc. you'll like the other lessons. They all have very brief descriptions (usually about 4 sentences) and often a diagram showing the fingering for each string (for example, where B, C# and D are on the A-string, and similar indications for the other strings in the upcoming exercise). Each then jumps into a sheet music exercise. There's an accompanying CD so you can hear if you're making the right sounds.I've had a few years of piano lessons and can read sheet music fairly well. I'm also 54 years old, patient, and play guitar (poorly). Consequently I enjoyed the exercises in the book.If you can read sheet music and prepare your violin on your own, the exercises appear to be good ones - both in terms of what one can learn from them and what they cover.The lessons begin with just a few positions on a couple of strings, played slowly, then expand to more positions, faster play, dynamic accents (and 3 ways to change the violin's volume), staccato (but not pizzicato-fingers instead of bow), and more.Sprinkled into the lessons are a few folk tunes like "Camptown Races" and "Dixie", but they include mostly an excellent selection of classical excerpts (the "Look Inside" feature's "Contents" shows the complete list). While completing this book you will learn a little Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.After this book, I was able to learn an intermediate level version of Jay Ungar's "Ashokan Farewell" (PBS's "Civil War" themesong) and a solo intro to Bach's Concerto for Violin in E (BWV 1042) without too much difficulty.

I bought this book for my granddaughter. We borrowed one from the library and she really liked practicing with the dvd. I would not have purchased this copy had I realized that the DVD/CD was not included. We are both very disappointed and unhappy about that. It does not make sense to me that this copy is the same price as the copy which includes both the CD and DVD, so to me it’s not worth the price I paid. I am truly regretting this purchase.

This book is difficult to review, because I was truly a beginner using this. I was not just a beginner to the violin, but also to reading sheet music. I felt that there was very little setup to get to the point that you not only feel comfortable reading music, but also holding the violin. Unlike many other instruments the violin is not inherently natural because you hold it in place with your chin. The actual sheet music has a good progression from simple finger exercises to more advanced pieces. Especially with some of the baroque music, different time is kept. Again this is a case of ignorance of not having previous education in sheet music. The concept is explained, but little weight seems to be given to it. The CD accompanying the book is nice to have, but has little dialogue . I wasn't incredibly impressed with the overall number of scores in the book either. So in all it has all the basic elements of a beginner's book, but little explanation of anything is given and falls short of being very helpful for a "true" beginner.

Background: I'd studied suzuki style for all of one month before firing my teacher because I couldn't sing another nursery rhyme. I didn't read music, or understand what a key signature was, and in the 3 years since the Suzuki method, I couldn't remember which was the upstroke sign and which the down, so while I wasn't an ABSOLUTE beginner, I had more bad habits than good. I've also TRIED and failed to learn piano and guitar, so I do have SOME music theory background.The Bad:As a beginner I rely on having my neck taped so I know my finger placements. (no frets ;) ) This book does not tell you where or how to do that, so getting finger placement right if you have no one to help you will be difficult. Beyond this, I'm loving the book.The Good:1.) This has the simplest and easiest notation I've ever seen for learning to read music. I tried and failed many times before with piano and guitar books both to learn to read real musical notation, and failed every time. A week into the book and I'm already sight reading some simpler pieces. (very simple, as in 2 strings, but reading them none the less)2.) Some of the music doesn't suck. Now, being a beginners book, you're going to be stuck with twinkle twinkle little star, just like every other beginners book, but finding "Ode to Joy" on the second lesson of actual play made my day. :)3.) The big graph on the top of all the first lessons makes it easy to remember which strings and finger placements are which notes.4.) you learn to find key signatures slowly and simply while you learn the scales and notes on each string. Once again, this is something I'd read about alot in other books, but in this book it was shown simply and only one example at a time as you worked your way up the strings and scales played on them, so it finally made sense to me.In conclusion: While I'm not an absolute newbie to music, I really am to the fiddle, and after throwing away a few books I found absolutely useless and giving up on learning under a teacher who targeted 5 year olds, I've found a book I'm REALLY happy with and which is helping me make progress.-- James

I own a violin since a week, so I am a "beginner" on it. But not on a lot of other stringed instruments, that's why I can play a violin much better than other beginners. This book is in fact hardly a violin-tutorial. It is a 'songbook' without songs. It didn't instruct (me) at all, besides some (but too vague) tipps about holding the violin. The average youtube video is more helpfull.Also, this thin book is not half as instructive / educational as the clarinet 'version'. Both contain sheet music (without lyrics) for those who can already reed music pretty well. Well, true beginners don't.The printing quality of the text / photo's inside, look a century old = hard to read / see.The CD accompanying the book is a nice bonus, but has little use.The good: Enough musical variation. And the sheet music has a progression from the first fingerings to the difficult pieces. And the book + cd are cheap.As mentioned earlier, the pieces aren't songs, because they contain -strangely enough- no lyrics. A beginner needs the lyrics, for words make the notes above them more understandable.I miss the words in especially the very nice -quite hard top play- piece "Dixie" (also called Dixieland, usually performed by American marching - and jazz bands). Dixie is very hard to find in other books and was the main reason why I bought this book, which I give 2 stars (3 if it would have words underneath the notes / tones).

I am only on lesson 4 in this book. I like the fact that it comes with a CD, so you can listen to the piece first and look at the music, before playing it. It also helps to play along with the CD, so you can hear where you are sharp or flat, but.... you will experience some frustrations when you try and find the music or lesson on the CD, for example, the index claims that lesson 4 is track 7, but it appears the tracks are backwards, so it is actually track 50 out of 57.

Ottimo

This was my first violin book when I started my violin lessons. And I love all the short music pieces (usually 1/2 page long)and practice exercises at the top of many pages ! Note. I'm an adult learning to play a second musical instrument; So, I can read the music notes.

very good